Preserve an Endangered Species with Heritage Chickens

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The chicks will find the heat they need and should arrange themselves in a ring under the rim of the lamp. If they group under the bulb, lower it; if they pull far away, raise it. After a day, put mash in a pair of saucers with a weighted coffee mug or rock in the middle to keep chicks from soiling the feed. Once they find the feed, keep a small sprinkling of coarse sand on the paper.

When droppings appear, you'll find two kinds. Most are semifirm blobs of gray stool with a white patch of uric acid on top. Droppings may be semiliquid till the birds get used to their feed. Don't be alarmed when, after a week or more, you find occasional wet, greenish, bubbly droppings. This comes from organs in the gut that harbor microbes that digest cellulose and is normal throughout the bird's life. The odor will clear your sinuses real quick.

In a week the chicks will begin growing real feathers and in three weeks will lose their cuteness and will be raising a tine dust that can coat everything in the room. Time to put them on the porch or in their outside pen if you haven't already.

Keep the now adolescent, gawky, and decidedly uncute birds under the brooder light for a month, or till they are well feathered and start peeking over the top of a 6-inch-high barrier ring. If weather is cold, leave them under the light till low temperatures are above 50°F.

Don't introduce young birds into an established flock till they are 6 weeks old or better, or they may be badly pecked. Even then, if possible, put a wire-mesh division down the center of the pen to keep the new and old birds separated but in eyesight and clucking/bonding contact for several days.

Chickens are, frankly, "chicken"; m nature, flight is their main defense. If terrorized by grown birds, youngsters will pack into a fair corner, literally paralyzed with fear. They may not come out for water or food, or may push back against the wall so hard that birds at the rear of the pack will be smothered.

Selecting a Breed

See sidebars, read books and catalogs, join clubs, and visit other fanciers to select a breed. If your outdoor space is restricted, consider a big, calm, and mild-tempered breed that doesn't mind being cooped, such as the lovely soft-gold-colored Buff Orpington or Black Australorp.

To encourage the foraging that is important for self-sufficiency, keep a few of such hard-working varieties a, tire glossy black-and-white-speckled (naturally well camouflaged) Ancona to lead the flock into the field. They manure to egg-laying age in 4 1/2 months but will not set their eggs.

The instinct to incubate fertile eggs and care for the brood is the most desirable characteristic if we are to re-create Self-sufficient breeds. Bantams, semiwild Jungle Fowl (you can buy the real, original stock), the similar-looking varicolored Old English Game Cocks, or any of the several breeds of genuine fighting cock will set, but aren't good for much else but show and pure enjoyment.

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